An in vitro model system to assay kidney-pathogen interactions determining outcome of Candida albicans infection

Candida albicans is a human commensal organism that can cause life-threatening systemic infections in severely ill patients. The mouse intravenous challenge model is commonly used to model this infection. However, recent research has found that it is early events in the kidney that generate damaging immune responses and determine gross outcome of infection. Therefore, identification of the renal cells involved in these responses will allow development of an in vitro assay to model these events.